Didn't that go by quickly. Six songs in six weeks and here we are crossing the finish line with the last creation for this year. As always it's been a great pleasure to grow and learn. This weeks creation came in the midst of a six foot deep snow storm here and I couldn't spend as much time as I would have liked. Its not as polished as I would like, mixed but not professionally mastered. None the less I decided to do a song about Christmas and the main character involved at that time of year with a few sly twists. I hope you take some of your precious time to listen and enjoy.

﻿ Hey everyone were rounding the bend and heading for the home stretch and can see the finish line, it's funny how time goes by so quickly. This is what Jordan Howard is looking for : "I am looking for songs to pitch for a new series on Lifetime that stars Christina Ricci. The series can be best described as a 19th Century “Dexter.” Series centers around a female anti-hero, lots of emotions. Love, Lust, Hate, Danger. Musically I am looking for songs in the vein of: Black Keys, Bon Iver, Band of Skulls, Carolina Chocolate Drops, James Vincent McMorrow. For one episode, I am looking for a replacement for Hozier’s “To Be Alone.” As long as the song is in a similar wheelhouse and is lyrically similar, that is what is most important."﻿

There was more of a challenge to do the research and find out what he was looking for, thank you internet for your help, and put all those emotions into one creation. As before it is always a challenge to get a song arranged, produced and edited, but I'm starting to gain ground in those areas.

So here is my take of what he is looking for to fit his puzzle he is trying to solve. The name of the tune is "I Think I Am"

Looky here it's week 4 and were into the "Write an EDGY country pop song"I'm not sure if I came up with an edgy country pop song but this "my creation" and my take on an idea that just comes from somewhere.

It was a challenge to arrange, produce and edit, edit, edit edit, did I already say edit. I was having a great difficulty with getting this to sound ok and then James Lindeman came on with his weekly video tip and really helped me to focus on a better way to present this. Well I think it made all the difference and I thank him for being so helpful. I'm really learning a lot this year and I'm starting to feel comfortable. I hope that's good.

Look at that it's already week 3 into the challenge and I'm keeping up so far, that's a good sign.well the challenge this week is to write a one minute jingle with 15, 30, and 45 sec. cut downs that could be used in an advertisement spot for a child. I have never done this before and found it to be a great diversion from what I have been used to doing which made me think in a whole different way. Also it gave me new insight as to actually what they would want.

So I thought to myself what do kids like to do and most of the time they like to be loved and played with. Kids like to snuggle and adults like to kiss their children so I wrote this tune about what a kid has to do to make a kiss, so I went about describing the steps to accomplish this. I came up with the title "Build Me A Kiss".

﻿I am quoting Rob Wells here: "I’m looking for strong female based Pop/Top 40 songs. Think Selena Gomez. Think Demi Lovato. Think big. Think hits. Think target audience of 13-18 years old. If you’re writing a global, universal, and (a little bit) quirky smash song with an interesting title, I’m interested. If you can sing your explosive chorus a thousand times and not be sick of it, I’m interested. Trim the fat. No unnecessary sections or long intros. Take me on a journey. Make every lyric count and funnel towards a great chorus payoff. Maximum 3:30 in length. Good luck!"

I thought about this for a while and then I thought some more. Wouldn't it be nice and fun to actually write an explosive pop song for the teenagers so I said to myself why don't I write a song about "Fun" so I used the title "Have Some Fun" and built a song around that. I didn't want to make it too complicated or over-produced and simple. Well here is the song and I hope you can at least giggle a wee bit!!!!! Haha

John Campbelljohn & Bill Stevenson's Nine Steps Band win the 2014 East Coast Blues Society "Maritimes to Memphis" International Blues Challenge!September 21st, 2014On Sunday, September 21st, the East Coast Blues Society held their 2nd Annual “Maritimes To Memphis” International Blues Challenge competition at Monte's Showbar & Grill which was split into the Solo/Duo and Band categories. John Campbelljohn will represent the ECBS in the Solo/Duo category and Bill Stevenson's Nine Steps Band in the Band category at the 31st International Blues Challenge, to be held in January 2015 on the fabled Beale Street in Memphis, TN, where Blues artists from around the world will compete for cash, prizes, and industry recognition.

Seven artists from the East Coast Blues scene vied for the opportunity to represent the ECBS at the 31st International Blues Challenge in Memphis, TN. Performers in the solo/duo category included John Campbelljohn. Christine Campbell, Chris Field and Ben Raftus while the band category saw Bill Stevenson's Nine Steps Band, Shrimp Daddy and The Sharpshooters and Good Rockin' Dan hit the stage resulting in an event filled with top notch East Coast entertainment.

The world's largest gathering of Blues acts representing an international search by The Blues Foundation and its Affiliated Organizations for the Blues Band and Solo/Duo Blues Act ready to take their act to the international stage. The IBC is a judged "Battle of the Bands" in which competitors take the stage and play a short set for a panel of judges. The acts are judged based on an established set of criteria. Each Affiliate of The Blues Foundation has the right to send a band and solo/duo act to represent the organization at the IBC in Memphis, TN. Affiliates are required to stage a regional preliminary IBC competition, where the winner of that competition earns the right to represent the Affiliate at the Memphis international competition. In 2014, 255 acts from 40 states and 16 countries (and four continents) entered, filling the clubs up and down Beale Street for the quarter-finals on Wednesday and Thursday, the semi-finals on Friday and the finals at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday. The 2015 International Blues Challenge will be the 31st year of Blues musicians from around the world competing for cash, prizes, and industry recognition.

The 31st annual International Blues Challenge runs in Memphis, TN on historic Beale St from Wednesday January 21st – Saturday January 24th, 2015

Well pant, pant, pant I made it to the week six and collapsed across the finish line . A four way collaboration with Lucy Leblanc, Angie Ricci, Roger Beckett and myself. We did this via a google hangout over two evenings and one day of mixing etc. Also over 3 time zones and thousands of miles, Nashville (Lucy), Roger and Angie (Ontario) and me (Halifax). A lot of wordsmithin', shiftin, jumbling, bumbling etc. But we got er' done. Tattoos& Bikes thats the name of it. Hope you get te time to hear it .

I am letting the subconscious take its turn to bring up ideas and thoughts about this next song and just let things come out and when you do that sometimes unexpected things come into focus. It seems that the more you let go and trust in brainstorming etc. that the possibilities are endless. I brought up a flush of ideas one seemed to keep nagging at me for more attention than the rest. The idea I liked the most was about makin a livin and I decided to go with that one and if you listen to the song you will get the full story I am trying to convey.

Here are 10 cliches and perspectives:

1. I Love You - Make pretend that you really love them.2. Play The Fool - play somebody else for a fool.3. You broke my heart - and meant to do it.4. Oh baby - what you say and do makes me feel wrong.5. Feel the pain- I should but I don't feel the pain for being wrong.6. By my side - they re still there and don't t want them there.7. All my love - give you some but not all my love.8. Dream come true - are you a dream or a nightmare.9. Take my hand - should have taken both my hands 10. Your the one - who wants to be a friend.